Department of Commerce. This legislation is essential to demonstrate not only the 

 value and importance of the Undersea Research Program, but our intention to 

 strengthen and expand it as well. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today and mvitmg me to 



attend. 



Mr. Ortiz. Thank you. I am like my good friend says, we will 

 have to be going in and out and conducting some votes. But before 

 we go to vote, I feel a brief introduction of our witness panel is in 

 order. Our first witness is Dr. Ned Ostenso, Assistant Administra- 

 tor for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, at NOAA. He is accom- 

 panied by Dr. David Duane, Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

 Extramural Programs and the director of the NURP program. 



Next is Dr. Thomas Bright. He is the Executive Director for the 

 Sea Grant College Program at Texas A&M University which is in- 

 terested in a broad range of marine issues relating to coastal re- 

 source use, conservation, and management. Dr. Bright has special- 

 ized in coral reef ecology for over two decades, and presently he 

 serves as biological oceanographer at Texas A&M University. 



We have Dr. Sylvia Earle who is a former chief scientist at 

 NOAA and a renowned marine scientist. She is one of the few 

 people who have piloted small submersibles deeper than 1000 



We have Dr. Jeff Fox. He is a Professor of Oceanography at the 

 University of Rhode Island and a representative of the University- 

 National Oceanography Laboratory System. He has over 20 years 

 of oceanography research experience and is currently serving as 

 Chair of the Deep Sea Submergence Science Committee. 



Finally, we have Dr. Robert Wicklund who is associated with 

 NURP as the Director of the Caribbean Marine Research Center, a 

 position he has held since 1984. He is also a professor at the Uni- 

 versity of South Carolina. Dr. Wicklund has been involved in the 

 undersea research for 31 years and is here to share his views with 



us today. 



Since we do have a vote, I guess we might as well just go ahead 

 and go vote, and then hopefully we will be able to get to listen to 

 the testimony. I know it is going to be very enlightening. I under- 

 stand that we are going to have two consecutive votes so we will 

 have to recess for about 20 minutes. But, I can assure we will be 

 right back. 



Mr. Weldon. We apologize. 



[Recess.] 



STATEMENT OF NED A. OSTENSO, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR 

 FOR OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH; ACCOMPANIED 

 BY DAVID B. DUANE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR 

 EXTRAMURAL PROGRAMS 



STATEMENT OF NED OSTENSO 



Dr. Ostenso. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have a 

 mercifully short prepared testimony but it is filled with informa- 

 tion, and with your permission, I will submit it for the record. It 

 stands on its own, and I will use my oral time to make a few of my 

 own observations. 



